Charity:water creates virtual fundraiser on Twitter

A new viral phenomenon called the Twestival will host world's first multi-city, virtual fundraiser for water projects in Africa.

One of my favorite environmental activists is uber-hip club promoter turned fundraiser, Scott Harrison. Harrison made a big splash back in 2006 with his ground-breaking campaign called Charity:Water, which made use of some killer party instincts (and an expansive email list) to change the way fundraising was done online.

Since then Charity:Water has succeeded in raising enough money to drill over 1,200 wells in some of the most disease-afflicted areas of the world. To date ... $8 million from over 30,000 individual donors, which will provide 20 years of clean well water to more than 600,000 people in 14 countries.

The key was a combination of cool live fundraising events, viral email campaigns, well-designed products, and brilliant online video, featuring cultural icons like Beck. One of my favorites was the "Time Bomb" video — a real game-changer in terms of how one conveys a call-to-action for a charitable cause:

Gone are the sad pleas and boring copy so often associated with a typical nonprofit charity drive. Instead, great music, clear graphics, and video which quickly moves from problem to solution, showing the happy faces of villagers who for the first time in their lives have access to clean water.

So now (this Thursday Feb. 12) Harrison ups the ante again by harnessing the power of Twitter to raise awareness and more funding for the next water campaign. It's called the Twestival. There are literally hundreds of Twestival events all around the U.S. and the world, the biggest events being in New York, L.A. and London. In attendance in L.A. will be all manner of celebs, youtubers, DJ's and comedians, and the event is co-hosted by Web 2.0 ingenue and video blogger extraordinaire iJustine.

I'll be covering the event and twittering like mad, so make sure and follow me.

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